KNOW THE DEEN KNOW THE ISLAM
The Genuine Islam নামক গ্রন্থে জর্জ বার্নার্ড শ বলেনঃ
► 'যদি কোনও ধর্মের পরবর্তী একশ বছরের মধ্যে শুধু ইংল্যান্ড নয়, ইউরোপের উপরে রাজত্ব করার সুযোগ থাকে তবে তা ইসলাম হতে পারে।'
► 'আমি সবসময় মুহাম্মদের ধর্ম সম্পর্কে উচ্চ ধারণা করি ধর্মটির চমৎকার প্রাণশক্তির কারণে। আমার কাছে মনে হয় যে এটাই একমাত্র ধর্ম যা অস্তিত্বের পরিবর্তনশীল পর্যায়ে নিজেকে আকর্ষণ করতে পারে। ধর্মটি সব বয়সের মানুষের কাছে নিজেকে আকর্ষণীয় করে তুলতে পারে। আমি মুহাম্মদকে নিয়ে গবেষণা করেছি - চমৎকার মানুষ। তিনি খ্রিস্টবিরোধী হওয়ার প্রশ্নই ওঠে না। আমার মতে তাঁকে অবশ্যই মানবতার ত্রাণকর্তা বলা যেতে পারে। '
► 'আমি বিশ্বাস করি যে যদি তার মত একজন মানুষ আধুনিক বিশ্বের একনায়কতন্ত্র গ্রহণ করে, তবে তিনি বিশ্বের সমস্যাগুলো এমনভাবে সমাধান করতে সফল হবেন যা বিশ্বকে প্রয়োজনীয় শান্তি এবং সুখ এনে দেবে। আমি মুহাম্মদের বিশ্বাস সম্পর্কে ভবিষ্যদ্বাণী করেছি যে এই বিশ্বাস কালকের ইউরোপের কাছে গ্রহণযোগ্য হবে, যেহেতু এই বিশ্বাস আজকের ইউরোপের কাছে গ্রহণযোগ্য হতে শুরু করেছে।'
There are various types of tolerance that apply to many spheres of life. Culturaltolerance applies to all communities, as each community has its own habits, traditionsand culture that it seeks to spread and preserve.Tolerance of hereditary disposition: The Prophet Mu
ḥ
ammad (peace and blessings of
Allāh
be upon him) is reported to have declared during the farewell pilgrimage:Oh people! Behold, your Creator is certainly One Being. Surely, your father isone person. No Arab is superior to a non-Arab, nor is a non-Arab to an Arab, ora person of fair skin colour to a person of dark skin colour, or vice versa, except
by attaining consciousness of Allāh…
5
In another hadith, Zubayr (may Allāh be pleased with him), one of the companions,
reported that the Prophet Mu
ḥammad (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon h
im)stated:Lurking towards you is the disease of previous nations, i.e., envy and hatred. This
disease is like a razor, and its effect is unlike the cutting of one’s hair. Rather, itleads to the devastation of one’s faith. By Him, in whose control my lif
e is! Youwill not enter Paradise until you believe, which cannot be achieved until youexpress love for one another. Should I not inform you of a characteristic that willfortify your faith? Spread peace amongst yourselves.
6
This Islamic standard of livi
ng found further progress during the eras of the Prophet’s
successors, namely, the rightly-
guided Caliphs, Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthmān and ‘Alī,as well as during the lifetimes of the rest of the Companions. ‘Alī, the fourth Caliph of
Islam and the cousin of the Prophet Mu
ḥammad (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon
him), instituted the basis for the
Chishtī
Order, having been one of the closest
Companions and the first boy to accept Islam. ‘Ali’s early acceptance of Islam directly
from the Prophet Mu
ḥ
ammad (p
eace and blessings of Allāh be upon him) allowed ‘Alīto be occupied most of the time in the Prophet’s companionship and in serving Islam.‘Alī had certainly received his education and nurturing during those years, thereby
http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo?journalid=214&doi=10.11648/j.ijecs.20190404.13.
5
A
ḥ
mad ibn
Ḥ
anbal,
Musnad A
ḥ
mad
, Volume 38, 474, accessed on 02 October 2019.
6
Ab
ū
‘Ī
s
ā
al-
Tirmidhī,
J
āmi’ al
-
Tirmidhī
(Riyadh: Bayt al-Afk
ā
r al-Dauliyyah, 2004), 2510. See
also, Byeong Hei Jun, “The Sufi Concept of Love of God (Mahabbah / ‘Ishq) in the Thought ofAbū Hā
mid Al-Ghaz
ālī,” PhD. Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2007.
equipping him with moral fibre and spiritual insight. Moreover, the roots of
Ta
ṣ
awwuf
had been planted in both the individual lives, as well as in the communal lives of theCompanions.
7
The companions of the Prophet Mu
ḥ
ammad were leaders in the propagation oftolerance and peace amongst people. Amongst such personalities, saints and disciplesfollowing the
Chishtī Ṣūfī
school mainly concern themselves with the proliferation oftolerance, thereby repudiating iniquity.
8
As a result of these principles, the Prophet’s Companions inspired t
heir students anddisciples, as well as later generations to detach themselves from the temporary worldly
life and live solely to attain closeness to Allāh and
strive for His satisfaction. Hence,the movement of
zuhd
(Islamic asceticism) was formed during the era of the successorsto the Companions (
tābi’ūn
), which subsequently led to the construction of
Ta
ṣ
awwuf
and
Ṣūfī
philosophical thought.The well-known
Ṣūfī and Muslim theologian, Muḥammad Abū Ḥāmid al
-
Ghazzālī
,discusses the idea of tolerance in his treatise,
The Alchemy of Happiness
. Al-
Ghazzālī
expansively wraps all of humanity in the tolerant embrace of
Taw
ḥīd
, the Oneness of
Allāh, “
Know that the world is one stage of the stages of the journey to God Most High.All in this station are travellers. Since the destination of journey of this caravan oftravellers is the same, they are all as one. There must be friendship and unity amongthem and mutual aid.
”
9
7
Abu Na
ṣr ‘Abd
-
Allāh ‘Alī al
-
Sarrāj A
l-
Ṭūsī
,
Al-
Luma’ fi Tārīkh al
-Ta
ṣ
awwuf al-
Islāmī
, (Cairo: Al-Maktabah al-
Tawfīqiyyah). Abū Bakr Muḥ
ammad al-Kal
ā
b
ādhī,
Al-
Ta’arruf li Madhhab Ahl al
-Ta
ṣ
awwuf
(Beirut: D
ār Ṣādir, 2001), 13
-16. See also, Abd al-Ra
ḥ
m
ā
n al-Sulam
ī
,
40 Hadith onSufism
(Amman: MABDA, 2016), accessed on 02 October 2019; and Kenneth,
Honerkamp, “ASufi Itinerary of Tenth Century Nishapur Based on a Treatise by Abū ‘Abd al
-Ra
ḥmān al
-
Sulamī
,
”
Journal of Islamic Studies
17, no. 1 (2006): 43-67, accessed on 1 April 2019,http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uwc.ac.za/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=65eadf94-1fb9-41cb-993b-327303e40996%40sessionmgr4009.
8
For more information on the
Chishtī Ṣūfī
Order, see Muneera Haeri,
The Chishtis: A Living Light
(London: Oxford University Press, 2000); Mohamed Saied Soofie & Abdul Aziz Soofie,
HazrathSoofie Saheb (Rahmatullah Alai) & His Khanqahs
(Durban: Impress Web, 1999); MuhammadAmeer Khurad Kirmaani,
Siyarul Awliya
(Durban: Nizami Publishers, 2013); MuhammadZakariyya Kandhalwi,
The Mashaikh of Chisht
(New Delhi: Kutub Khana Ishayat-ul-Islam, 2006);Talib al-Habibi,
Lanterns of the Path: The Blessed Lineage of the Chishti Habibi Order
(Durban:Shah Ibrahim Publications, 2002); Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi,
A History of Sufism in India
(NewDelhi: Print India, 1983), Volume 2, 264-318.
9
Mu
ḥammad Abū Ḥā
mid al-Ghazz
ālī,
The Alchemy of Happiness
(Beirut: D
ā
r al-Kutub al-
‘Ilmiyyah, 2006), 12.
Al-
Ghazzālī also stresses on tolerance as respecting each other’s rights. He urges that
human beings must go beyond tepid abidance-tolerance, to the loving embrace of oneanother.
10
Another Muslim
Ṣūfī, Muḥ
y al-
Dīn ibn al
-
‘Arabī remarked about religious tolerance:
It is vain to quarrel about religion. Everyone praises what he believes; his god ishis own creature, and in praising it he praises himself. Consequently, he blamesthe beliefs of others, which he would not do if he were just, but his dislike is basedon ignorance. If he knew Junayd's saying
–
“
the water takes its colour from thevessel containing it
” –
he would not interfere with the beliefs of others but would perceive God in every form and in every belief.
11
This pattern of spiritual revival perpetually continued throughout subsequentgenerations. It was amid such religious awareness that the
Chishtī Ṣūfī
Order was
established by Abū Isḥāq Chisht (d. 940) in Herat, Afghanistan.
12
10
Mu
ḥammad Abū Ḥā
mid al-Ghazz
ālī,
The Alchemy of Happiness
(Beirut: D
ā
r al-Kutub al-
‘Ilmiyyah, 2006), 17.
11
“Ancient wisdom for today’s world,” Montreal Theosophy Project, last modified in 2015, accessed
on 27 March 2020, https://theosophyproject.blogspot.com/2015/10/ibn-arabi-on-unity-of-religions-and.html.
12
See G.R. Smith,
A Muslim Saint in South Africa
(Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press,1969), 3; Muhammad Ameer Khurad Kirmaani,
Siyarul Awliya
(Durban: Nizami Publishers SouthAfrica), Volume 1, 55;
The Chishti Order in the Deccan
, accessed on 14 February 2020,https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/63609/10/10_chapter%205.pdf.
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